Man arrested in Stamford hotel robbery

Updated 9:51 pm, Tuesday, April 23, 2013

STAMFORD -- A city man who allegedly sold drugs to an East Side hotel guest was arrested Monday, charged with beating and robbing the man in his hotel room two weeks ago.

Michael Genovese, 38, of 107 Lafayette St., was charged with home invasion, second-degree robbery and failure to appear in court.

On April 10, police were dispatched to a robbery at Americas Best Value Inn on East Main Street next to exit 9 of Interstate 95. There, officers found a 30-year-old man bleeding in his hotel room.

The man said he was standing outside his room smoking when a woman came up to him. She had just fought with her boyfriend and asked the man to give her a ride, Stamford police Sgt. Robert Shawinsky said.

The man agreed, but said he had to go into his room to get something first. After he went inside, he heard a loud banging on his door. When he opened it a crack to see who it was, a man outside pushed the door open and shoved the occupant into a dresser, causing him to fall, with a lamp then landing on him.

The hotel guest, who told police he had been staying at the inn for a couple of weeks, said the intruder then began to punch him. When the intruder left the room, he took the resident's Apple TV and a disk drive.

The victim told police he recognized the man as someone named Mike, whom he bought drugs from the night before, Shawinsky said.

After police provided a photo line-up, the victim immediately picked out Genovese's picture and said he was 100 percent sure he was the assailant, Shawinsky said.